Detective’s Slaying Shocks Baptist School : Children Say Prayers for Victims, Killer

Children at a Canoga Park church school offered prayers Friday for victims left behind by a brutal murder at the edge of their campus--and for the killer who sprayed their school with bullets as he gunned down an off-duty police officer.

Detective Thomas C. Williams, 42, of Canoga Park was shot to death by a masked gunman as he picked up his 5-year-old son Thursday afternoon from an after-school child-care center at Faith Baptist School.

Police said first-grader Ryan Williams survived the attack after heeding his father’s order to duck as the attacker opened fire from a car traveling north on Glade Avenue.

“The man who did this was pretty cruel. But I’m going to pray for him,” Brian Laird, a 13-year-old eighth-grader, said after attending a school chapel service where killing was discussed.

Praying to God

Seventh-grader Jennifer Stout, 12, said she was hoping that the killer is caught and punished. But she said she was also praying he is saved in the eyes of God.

Ryan Williams’ tiny classmates prayed that their friend “not be sad,” according to first-grade teacher Mary Ann Kemmer.

The shooting sent shock waves through the 1,300-pupil Baptist school in the 7600 block of Glade Avenue, between a commercial landscaper’s nursery and a quiet residential neighborhood. Clusters of students gathered throughout the day to stare at five bullet holes visible in an assembly hall’s walls and window, and to whisper about the tragedy.

School officials said it was a miracle of sorts that about two dozen children in the after-school program were not in the assembly hall when it was struck by the bullets.

“That room is normally always used for day care, always,” said Principal Margaret Rasmussen. “One of the ladies who run it said she just had a feeling that she didn’t want to use that room Thursday.

“I think the Lord really protected the children here. I think it’s pretty nervy to come to church property to do something like this. Whoever did it showed no concern for God--and certainly no concern for human life.”

A school secretary, who asked not to be named because she fears the gunman will stalk her next, said she drove up to the school moments after Williams was shot at about 5:40 p.m. She said the assailant’s car raced past her with its lights off, but she did not get a look at its driver.

“When we saw Mr. Williams slumped next to his truck, we thought at first it was a Halloween prank,” the secretary said. “Then I thought maybe he’d been hit by that car. Then I saw that he was dead.”

As the woman tried to help Williams, his son jumped from the truck and ran away, crying. Her own 13-year-old daughter ran after the boy and took him inside the school as she raced to a church office to call police, the secretary said.

Church workers said school nurse Evelyn Cone and the Rev. Roland Rasmussen, pastor of Faith Baptist Church, comforted the boy and his mother, Norma Williams, who had been summoned to the shooting scene. Norma Williams arrived in a Wizard of Oz-style “Tin Man” Halloween costume she had worn Thursday to her Simi Valley bank job. The Williamses also have a 17-year-old daughter, Susan.

Police Called Earlier

School workers, who said they called police last week after observing a suspicious-looking car parked on Glade Avenue near the school, said the sidewalk along the street was filled with Halloween trick or treaters at the time of the shooting.

“The person obviously had staked out the situation and was just waiting to shoot him. He had to see there are children here at 6 o’clock at night. It’s a total disregard for human life,” said Rasmussen, founder of the 23-year-old school.

Faith Baptist School does not observe Halloween, but students were dressed in Revolutionary War-era costumes for the school’s annual Colonial Day celebration that coincides with Halloween, school administrators said. Ryan Williams was costumed as a Colonial soldier, they said.

Judy Bole, manager of a 28-unit town house complex next door to the school, said she heard shooting, but assumed it was Halloween firecrackers.

“There were people milling around all over the street. I can’t believe more people weren’t killed. That man must have taken dead aim,” Boyle said.

“Right after the shots, a woman screamed. One of my neighbors said she heard it, too. She said she’ll hear those screams all her life.”

As police continued their investigation at the school Friday, cars stopped on Glade Avenue as motorists gawked at the shooting scene.

One of them was Paul Marquez, a 23-year-old San Fernando carpenter who said he had known Williams for several years. He said Williams had “taken my life and turned it around.”

“I was running around with the wrong crowd and was a runaway when I met him at the police station. He had a lot of compassion. He liked kids a lot,” Marquez said.

Police said a rosary will be recited for Williams at 7:30 p.m. Monday at Our Lady of the Valley Catholic Church, 7171 Topanga Canyon Blvd., Canoga Park. Memorial services will be held at 10 a.m. Tuesday at the same location, with burial at the San Fernando Mission Cemetery.

Williams, a New Orleans native, graduated from Brown Military Academy in 1961 and went on to receive an associate degree in theater arts from Pierce College and, in 1976, a bachelor’s degree in police administration from California State University, Los Angeles. He also enlisted in the Army Reserve in 1961 and served until 1967.

He joined the Los Angeles County marshal’s office in 1966 and worked there until joining the Los Angeles Police Department in March, 1972. Williams worked in the West Valley and Central divisions, then transfered to North Hollywood in December, 1974, where he became a detective in June, 1981.